


Brand New Bridges

by thenafics



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Interdimensional Travel, and an especially hard time explaining Robin, gotham doesn't exist in the mcu, he has an even harder time explaining Batman, jason has a hard time explaining gotham to normal people
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-06
Updated: 2018-05-21
Packaged: 2019-03-27 18:20:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 5,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13886466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thenafics/pseuds/thenafics
Summary: No, Jason probably shouldn't have approached the mysterious swirly thing without at least being geared up. Did he? Yes, absolutely, one hundred percent. Does he regret it? Jury's still out on that one. He probably will.





	1. Over that Hill

**Author's Note:**

> Just some fun stuff. May be up to 6 chapters, will be at least 2. I'm kind of using this as a side project while I work on more chapters of my other stuff. Yay procrastination!

It’s too easy for Jason to forget how young he looks (how young he really is). With all that’s happened in his life, all the trials and scars, he feels a thousand years old even though he looks barely out of high school. He’s well over six feet tall, built like a brick building, and covered head to toe in scars, but he still only looks like a rough-cut nineteen year old. So Jason is surprised when he gets yanked through some weird interdimensional portal and the first thing the agents now detaining him ask is whether or not they need to call his parents.

“What,” Jason responds flatly. He’d been expecting the usual good cop, bad cop routine feds usually pulled on criminals or the blatant aggression and contempt he usually got when any kind of authority figure recognized him as the Red Hood.

“You look pretty young,” the male agent tells him, condescension dripping from his voice. Jason had him pegged as the smarmy promotion seeking jerk to his partner’s long suffering senior agent.

“I’m twenty. I don’t need any goddamn parental supervision.” Jason bites out, purposefully thickening his Gotham accent and emphasizing his smoker’s rasp to pull the gravel in his voice out.

“Wonderful,” the second agent cuts in. Looks like Jason had guessed correctly about who the real power is. “So you won’t mind answering some questions?”

The question mark at the end of her phrase is only a formality. The meaning is clear, he  _ will  _ answer her questions. Jason takes the implied meaning to be that he only has to answer  _ her _ questions and sits silently whenever the male agent ( he calls himself Agent Christianson, just because Jason isn’t responding doesn’t mean he’s not listening) opens his mouth. The other fed, Agent Hill, pretends not to smile as her partner gets more and more frustrated with Jason’s selective unresponsiveness. Eventually Agent Christianson snaps and reaches across the table to grab Jason by the front of his shirt (civvies, but his gear was in the duffel they’d confiscated) and slams his other hand into Jason’s face in a move that would have been a bruising right cross if Jason hadn’t twisted his neck to both minimize the damage and make the hit look worse than it really is. 

“Christianson! Get out.” Hill snaps. As the younger agent trails out of the room, shamefaced, Hill calls after him “I’ll be bringing this up with Fury. Get Coulson over here and then go home for the day.” Jason smiles with slightly bloodied teeth when the door slams. He’d managed to pull one of the metal clips off of Christianson’s lanyard when the agent had gotten in close enough to grab him and is now using it to surreptitiously pick the cuffs keeping him chained to the table.

“So,” he says “now that Dirtbag McWeasel is gone, let’s get down to what you really want to know. I’m an open book, ask away.” The click the handcuffs give when he unlocks them is covered by his purposefully loud voice and Hill doesn’t notice the sleight of hand that lets him slip his wrists from the cuffs while leaving his palms flat on the table.

“Why don’t we start with who you are and where you’re from and then circle back around to why you antagonized a federal agent.” She looks down at the pad of paper in front of her and notices that his hands are free. As an afterthought, she adds “And how you got out of those cuffs.”

Jason has to give Hill credit for appearing almost completely unruffled by his escape. 

“Those last two are related, Agent Hill.”

“Great. Start with who you are and where you’re from,” she says. Her no nonsense attitude and refusal to be easily distracted make Jason pout out of disappointment. 

“My name’s Jason.I’m not from around here, I’m from Gotham.”

He waits for the inevitable cringe of sympathy or wary glare that most people would give when reminded of the existence of what is, by almost all metrics, the scariest city in America. Instead, he gets a quirked eyebrow.

“So, New York?” Jason is taken aback by her non-recognition of his city.

“No! Gotham. It’s in New Jersey, right on the coast, it’s got all the crazies and the masks… “ he trails off when he still sees no spark of recognition in her eyes.

“Hey, Agent Hill?” Jason asks “You know how I said I’m not from around here?” She nods slowly. “I think I might be in the wrong universe.”

“You’re definitely a Coulson type of problem now.”


	2. Explaining the Impossible

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Apparently Gotham is weird. Who knew?

Coulson walks into the questioning room, Jason’s duffel bag in hand, with a serene sort of half smile that automatically makes Jason sit right up in his chair. It’s the same kind of expression Alfred usually gave before politely insulting someone’s intelligence. He passes Hill a new clipboard.

“Hello,” he says, still with that quiet smile. “I’m Agent Coulson.”

“I’m Jason. Can I have my stuff back?” Jason smiles winningly up at Coulson and gets a bemused eyebrow raise.

“It depends on how well you cooperate. I wouldn’t want to be handing this many weapons over to someone who can’t cooperate.”

“Fair enough,” Jason shrugs. “Wait. You went through my stuff! Come on man!”

“Yes.” Hill answers instead of Coulson. “Now why would you need,” she glances at the clipboard Coulson gave her “six handguns, twelve flash grenades, a pound of plastic explosives, a rifle, four knives, and various and sundry other forms of weaponry? Not to mention the helmet and the body armor.”

“I was headed to work. Also, you guys need to do better checks, because I know for a fact that there were six knives in the bag in addition to the three you failed to confiscate from my immediate personage. If your evidence guys took my knives, I’m not going to be happy.”

“Work?” Coulson asks.

“Why do you need another three knives?” asks Hill.

“Those three knives are just for when I have to walk around in Gotham. As for what my work is, I can’t really explain it to you without explaining why Gotham is the kind of city you need three knives just to get around in.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It takes almost half an hour before Jason can even begin to explain the vigilante presence in Gotham. Both the agents get kind of stuck on the whole “killer clown,” thing. Then comes the tricky part, explaining Batman. There doesn’t seem to be a way to explain a ridiculously wealthy man going out at night to fight crime in an adult bat onesie without it sounding even more insane than the rest of Gotham. The part about him constantly adopting orphans and turning them into Robin (he’d explained Robin as baby batman in traffic-light colors, with less armor and training, the perfect target) nearly makes Coulson go spare before Jason even gets out that  _ he  _ was Robin once. It gives Jason an idea of how different this world is if these agents are getting upset before he even gets to the part of the story where a fifteen year old Jason gets beaten half to death with a crowbar and blown up. When he does tell that part of the story, he finds himself liking the way Coulson’s smile gets a little threatening and Hill’s eyes go steely. 

Jason’s brief explanation of his resurrection and subsequent dunking in the Lazarus pit followed by Talia’s training has Coulson looking at Jason like he’s considering something interesting and potentially useful. Jason very carefully leaves out the part where he stabs Robin, but he does go for the empathy powerplay when he tells them quietly that Batman had replaced him and let his killer go free. He finishes up by telling them about his current “job,” as a mercenary/ vigilante. Jason also neglects to tell them about his background as a crime lord and almost-villain, but he doesn’t think they’ve noticed.

  
  


 

 

“Until we can get you back, how do you feel about a job?”

“I’ve got nothing better to do.”

 


	3. Second Place Escapades

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jason has issues with authority and petty nuisance-making is the best revenge.

“So, do you really believe that this guy is telling the truth?”  
“I don’t know. But I do believe someone who has enough skill to pick military grade cuffs with a lanyard clip and possibly lie to two federal agents could be an asset.”  
“What are you going to tell Fury? We found him wandering around Shield property with a bag full of guns and explosives and decided to keep him?” Agent Hill sounds incredulous.  
“No. You’re going to tell him that we found a potential asset who can do wetworks and doesn’t have any previous entanglements or possible identifiers.”  
“Why can’t you tell him Coulson? I’m pretty sure this one’s on you.”  
“I’ll be getting an assessment of his skills. Please call in Agent Romanov and Agent Barton.”  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Jason is given some sort of standard issue fatigues by Agent Coulson and shuffled into a room full of Shield trainees. Up at the front of the room, a shorter female agent stood from her previously seated position. Jason turned to ask Coulson what was happening, but the agent was already gone.  
“Hello. I am Agent Melinda May.” Jason gets the vibe that this is another take-no-shit type lady.  
“Today you are here for a basic skills assessment to monitor your progress along the combat based training courses.”  
Jason smiles to himself. Time to mess with Coulson’s head just a little.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Jason places exactly one point behind the top ranking trainee in every assessment except for the hand to hand combat when he slips up and wins outright. Jason blames that on his fight or flight instincts being to firmly set to fight for him to ever lose a fight he could win.  
A few levels up, Coulson, Clint, and Natasha watch CCTV footage of Jason during the assessments. Clint cuts in the second they get to the marksmanship test.  
“He’s a perfect shot.”  
“What do you mean?” Coulson asks.  
“I mean that next time you shouldn’t let him go last. Look at his shots.” Coulson leans closer to the screen to peer at the tight grouping of bullet holes in the center of the target.  
“It’s a very tight cluster. But the trainee before him had a higher overall score.”  
“Look closer. It’s the same exact spread as the trainee before him. Only one bullet is different. He’s fucking with you Coulson.” There’s a bit of a laugh in Clint’s voice. “This kid’s good.”  
“He slipped up in the hand to hand combat.” Natasha chimes in. Her completely flat voice betrays only a hint of amusement.  
“How so?”  
“He didn’t mean to win. It messed up his pattern. He’s been exactly one point behind the leader of each group and this disrupted the pattern. He was holding back, but not quite enough.”  
Coulson sighs and leans back in his chair. He could tell now that this Jason kid was going to be more trouble than he had originally thought. He trusted Clint and Natasha’s assessment that he was far above his exhibited performance level though.  
“How would you two like to help me out with this?”  
“We would love to.” Natasha speaks for them both.  
“One last thing,” Clint interjects. “What’s his name?”  
“Jason.” Phil’s gets the feeling that sighing is the only way to say Jason’s name that fully conveys the magnitude of frustration this will cause.


	4. Midnight Assessments

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They need a stability report.

A red-headed woman shows up in Jason’s room (really just a modified holding cell). She sits on the only chair in the room watching Jason pretend to sleep for about thirty minutes. He mentally prepares for an attack, mind racing to figure out the best path to take when she makes her move.  
“Are you nocturnal for any particular reason?”  
Jason rolls over with a sigh so that he’s facing her, not just looking at her reflection in the shiny steel bed frame. He raises one eyebrow at her and she takes it as a prompt to explain.  
“You’ve only slept for about three hours per night for the week you’ve been here. You’re very good at pretending to sleep.” There’s an unspoken “but not good enough.”  
“Old habits die hard. Do you need anything else, or should I go back to pretending to sleep?”  
“You’re not surprised they’ve been monitoring you while you sleep?” Jason scoffs in response and sits up, throwing his legs off the side of the bed to face her.  
“Lady, I’d monitor me. They think I’m either crazy or a liar, but they can’t find enough evidence on anything to throw me away because according to every record out there, I don’t exist.So they decided I’d make a wonderful new pet and I agreed because the alternative is worse. Stop me if I’m wrong here, but you know exactly what I mean.” She very noticeably doesn’t correct him  
“What did you tell them?” she sounds genuinely curious even through the flat tone of her voice, so Jason gives her his best Gotham brand smile, the one that lets people back in his universe know that he’s seen Arkham from behind the bars, the grin that reminds some of the little justice kiddies exactly who he is. As fun as it is to dust off an old classic, he feels like this one might be wasted on her.  
“The truth.”  
“Why?”  
“I knew no one would believe it.”  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Natasha reports to Coulson and Fury that Jason is no less stable than Tony Stark. That gets a laugh and a query after her actual assessment. She repeats her original statement to an answer of dead silence this time. The resigned look on Coulson’s face may be becoming permanent with Jason’s residency at Shield. Fury, always the practical man, butts in.  
“Will he be a liability for field work?”  
“No,” responds Natasha “but it would be my recommendation that you move him into the tower where Agent Barton and I can more closely monitor him. It will also allow us the schedule flexibility to most effectively train him in Shield protocol. He appears to be nocturnal.”  
The raised eyebrow Coulson gets from Fury makes him wince slightly. Fury addresses him directly.  
“I want to integrate him with the team. We’re going to follow Agent Romanov’s recommendation and move him to Avenger’s tower.” Fury sighs and buries his face in his hands. “I must be desperate or crazy to be putting a possibly insane teenager who claims to be from an alternate dimension and has enough training to outshoot all my other trainees anywhere near Tony Stark.”  
“If it makes you feel better sir,” Phil chimes in,” he said he was twenty.”  
Fury sighs and lifts his head from his hands.  
“Let’s move him in.”


	5. Prove to Improve

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jason meets his room mates.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This update is double the length of all the past ones because I probably won't be able to update until the week after next.

 

The brief with the Avengers to tell them they’re going to have new room-mate goes much smoother than Coulson expects. That is to say, he only has to pull rank three times and give the “because I said so,” answer twice. Bruce’s enthusiasm about the possibilities of interdimensional travel had been entirely effective both in preventing him from freaking out and in stalling out any of Tony’s talking until Coulson has already finished with his speech. 

Outside in a holding area, Coulson meets with Hill and Jason. Jason has a standard issue duffel bag over one shoulder filled with basic necessities. Behind them trails a low ranked agent carrying the considerable weight of Jason’s gear. Jason meets Coulson’s eyes, flashes a smirk and then immediately shifts his body language and facial expression as soon as the door to the tower’s living level is opened. Coulson can see the years draining off of Jason’s body, leaving him looking younger and more vulnerable than he is. Coulson mentally pushes his estimate of Jason’s threat level up. Either Jason is an amazing actor or he’s the kind of person who uses the truth as a weapon. Both are dangerous, the latter even more so. He’ll have to ask Natasha which it is.

The junior agent passes off the bag of gear to Jason, who hefts it with considerably less effort than it had taken the agent. Phil walks in with Jason right behind him and Hill bringing up the rear. Steve explodes as soon as he actually sees Jason.

“He’s just a kid!” Steve shouts “Phil, you told us he was a trained mercenary!” Clint cuts in before Steve can do more than shout and get out of his seat.

“He is. I’d say he’s at least as good of a shot as Nat.” The restraining hand on Steve’s shoulder means the most coming from Clint, who is usually fairly willing to lay back until all the verbal sparring is done and avoids physical contact with pretty much anyone except for Natasha. Steve calms down slightly.

“He’s a child Clint.”

“ _ He _ is an adult and can actually hear you,” Jason interjects, some of the snark Coulson had become accustomed to slipping back into his voice. All of the attention in the room is suddenly on Jason, who peers around at the assembled team. His gaze catches on Natasha and he lets a bit of a smile overtake his face.

“Hey there night-watch lady. You with the move in crew?”

Natasha unfolds herself from the back of the couch and strolls through the room until she’s within arms reach of Jason. She offers her hand and Jason takes it with a grin.

“My name is Natasha.”

Coulson decides that this is the perfect time to leave. He and Hill head back to monitor the inevitable chaos from a bit further away.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jason notices Coulson leaving in the periphery of his vision and tenses minutely. He is now on his own in a room full of people that he has no idea of the abilities or personalities of. His inner Bruce is screaming at him that he should have been more prepared and asked more questions about the job before accepting, but it’s too late now. Jason eyes the way Natasha has put her body between him and everyone else in the room. She’s either very confident that they won’t hurt her or secure enough in her skill that she knows they can’t. Jason would bet it’s a bit of the former and a lot of the latter. He peers over he shoulder at the rest of the people in the room to make what is going to have to be one of the briefer threat assessment passes in his life.

There are five other men in the room. The one who had yelled earlier stands just over six feet and looks like a blond, all-American, superman. Next to him is the man who had calmed him earlier. Clint, he’d been called. Jason notices archer’s calluses on his hand where it rests against the other guys shoulder. His body is angled to cover Natasha partially even though his face is turned to Jason. The few seconds of eye contact they make give Jason the impression that this guy doesn’t miss much. Beyond those two, on the couch, two of the last three occupants of the room are sitting. The rumpled, professor looking guy looks a little panicked by the outburst from earlier. Jason is getting the vibe that this guy is probably the classically absent-minded genius. Next to him is a dark haired man whose attitude says he thinks he owns the place. His clearly expensive clothes say that he actually might. He’s looking up from some kind of tablet with detached interest. The final man in the room stands well over six feet and is looking out over the room from just behind the couch with the kind of good natured grin of someone who’s not entirely sure why everyone else is freaking out.

Jason shakes Natasha’s hand before addressing the room at large.

“Anyone else want to get introductions out of the way?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Blond Superman ends up being an extremely apologetic Steve Rogers-aka-Captain America. The archer is Clint Barton whose codename of Hawkeye Jason is immensely pleased to discover. The professor reveals himself to actually be a doctor. Bruce Banner, conspicuous lack of code name. Rich dude introduces himself as Tony Stark, the Iron Man like he expects Jason to know who that is and when he gets no reaction huffs disappointedly. The blond giant introduces himself as Thor with a booming voice and a bone crushing handshake that makes Jason inclined to think he does mean  _ that _ Thor. He calls Jason “sir knight,” as well which is just a confusing experience for everyone involved. Natasha tells him that her codename is Black Widow and he spends the rest of the night calling her Spider Lady.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jason spends the next few days slowly weaning himself off of his nocturnal habits and sparring with Clint and Natasha. He ties with or beats Clint consistently thanks to his League training, but he has yet to beat Natasha more than once, even if he does get close a few times. At the shooting range, it’s the exact opposite. He and Natasha are about an even match when it comes to pistols and he’s quite a bit of a better sniper than she is. Clint wipes the floor with both of them. Jason discovers that the older man’s aim extends to pretty much any projectile when he hands off a few batarangs from his gear for Clint to test out.

The first person Jason tries sparring with outside of Clint and Natasha is Steve. The two of them have been a little rocky because of initial introductions but Jason can tell that Steve is trying to patch things over with the offer of a spar. Jason is proud to say that he beats Steve handily. A lifetime of fighting metas and super soldiers like Deathstroke has more than prepared him for Captain America’s enhanced strength. Things go much smoother after the both of them have gotten some of their aggression out and Jason has proved that he is the mercenary Coulson has advertised him to be.

Bruce and Tony corner him for awhile to try and get the details of his interdimensional trip off of him. His answers aren’t satisfactory but Bruce engages him in a wonderful conversation about classic science fiction novels that has Tony throwing up his hands and leaving the room. 

Thor mostly just asks for help getting the toaster to work and insists on calling Jason “sir knight,” or just “knight,” most of the time. When Jason asks him why he just gets a confused look.

“Is that not who you are? A soldier? One of the dark knights of Gotham?”

Jason prides himself on only kind of freaking out. 


	6. Family Photos

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thor gets his answer. Shockingly, no one is happy about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Took a little longer than I thought, but I got the chapter up! Hope it's alright

“Thor, where I’m from, we only call one man the Dark Knight and he and I aren’t exactly on good terms. I suggest you get to explaining yourself real quick,” Jason growls out. He uses his classic Red Hood brand voice to cover up his mounting panic. If Thor knows something he might know a way to send Jason home. Oddly enough, he finds himself not wanting to go yet. Sure, he misses Roy and Kori, but here, no one has to know anything about him beyond what he tells them. There’s no Batman around the corner waiting for him to slip up so he can send Jason back to Arkham, he’s not a wanted man here, and there isn’t a news special once a year to remind him of the worst day of his life. Jason doesn’t want to go yet.

Thor looks confused by Jason’s sudden aggression and raises his hands in defense, backing up slightly at the green glint in Jason’s eyes and his bared teeth. Clint is in the doorway looking on,a hand on his belt prepped to go for a concealed weapon if something goes badly.

“We have seen many of the Bat’s kin pass in and out of the gates of Valhalla.The Dark Knight himself has passed through our halls. Many a brave warrior’s soul makes the journey but few are those that return to their realm to fight once more. Those that do are made into legend. I recognized your face from the portraits of the Bat’s vassals.”

For a second, Jason just looks at Thor in stunned silence before he throws his head back and laughs.He gives Thor a rueful smile and shakes his head.

“Maybe once. Must have been an old picture.”

“But it was you. Tell me sir knight, which of the bearers of the Bat’s crest are you?”

“Yes Jason, do tell,” Tony says. 

Jason must not have noticed him come in because he was so preoccupied with his panic and brief break with reality. Damn, Jason must really be losing his touch if Tony, the least stealthy person after Thor, can make it into the room without him noticing. When Jason looks over, it’s not just Tony standing there. The whole team is there, apparently drawn there by a combination of whatever commotion Jason had made and Jarvis’ warnings. Tony and Steve are standing shoulder to shoulder (shoulder to armpit really) with Bruce slightly behind them, looking far more interested in the wallpaper than the confrontation. They’re cutting off his escape route from the open side of the kitchen island that Clint doesn’t already have covered. Jason’s mind is already calculating whether or not he can vault high enough off of the counter to get onto the exposed beams of the ceiling when he sees Natasha standing across the island from him, the very picture of composure. He keeps his body ready for movement, but purposefully tones down his aggressive stance a little.

“Why should I? I’m as advertised on the black ops approved package. I can do my job and anything I would tell you, I’m pretty sure Coulson has already.”

“See the thing is, he hasn’t, so we would appreciate your version of events.”

Jason huffs angrily and turns away from Tony to face Thor, who hasn’t moved out of his placating posture. He focuses on a towel rack sunk into the wall that is going to be his best bet for escape if he drops this bombshell and the Asgardians have heard about even half of the shit he’s done.

“I’m the Red Hood.”

At the exact second that Thor’s jaw practically hits the floor, Jason bunches up the muscles in his thighs, pushes off high enough to get a grip on the wall mounted bar, and catapults himself up into the ductwork and beams of the ceiling. He uses some of the parts of his training that he hasn’t yet shared with his audience to navigate through the maze of beams and ductwork quickly and quietly. As he moves away, he can feel Natasha’s eyes on him. The last thing he hears before he drops down the side of a wall and slips away is the whisper of Thor’s voice in the stunned silence of the room.

“The Fallen Knight.”

 


	7. Keep Your Secrets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jason gets to keep this one

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's a bit late and a little short, but here's chapter seven. Hopefully everything will calm down soon so I can get back into regular updates!

Surprisingly, it’s Bruce who breaks the shocked silence of the room. 

“Is that good or bad?” he asks the room at large “I mean, just going off Jason, it’s pretty bad, but Thor’s reaction is a little… “ here Bruce makes a vague hand gesture.

“He has a good question. Thor, is it good or bad? Because I have to say that fallen anything does not sound great to me.” Tony addresses the god.

It takes Thor a little bit of time to move from where he’s staring after Jason to face the assembled Avengers.

“He was the first blood shed in the Bat’s crusade. The Fallen Knight was the first to fall in battle and the first to rise again. His story is not mine to tell, but I will tell you that he is a great warrior. He will do all that he can to aid those he believes to be deserving of protection.” Thor’s voice has the soft hush of fireside tales and secrets. He speaks with a reverence due to one of the heroes of old. 

“So he’s not some sort of demon guy?” asks Bruce, still sounding unsure.

“Not to us, my friend.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jason goes through his sparse possessions, folding clothes and organizing the weapons he doesn’t have to keep in the armory. Jason pretends this isn’t him packing in case he has to leave. Everything had been going so well. Sure he hadn’t quite been  cleared for field work yet, but he had still been trusted enough to be let into the tower, no chains on, and live there. If Thor tells them even half of what Jason has done and they have a code anything like Batman’s, Jason is either going to have to make a break for it or get ready to spend a long time in confinement. 

There’s a soft knocking on his door before Steve cracks the door open and pokes his head in. Jason knows that it looks like he’s getting ready to bolt. However this conversation goes is going to decide whether he actually does.

“Hey, Jason, can I come in?” asks Steve. He’s already through the doorway by the time he gets the last word of his question out, so Jason just shrugs. Steve hovers awkwardly for a minute and they both pretend that Jason is just sorting through laundry. The helmet is sitting on the bed and Steve reaches out and picks it up.

“What’s this?” he asks, turning it over in his hands, studying the smooth red material.

“My helmet. I wear it on jobs.” 

“Well, if you’re going to stay here, we’re going to have to make some changes to the helmet. Looks too much like Red Skull’s face.” Steve’s tone is light and hopeful. 

“What?”

“Red Skull. Guess you don’t have him in your universe, but here he was a villain. Real nasty guy. I punched him once.”

“I can stay?” The words come out of Jason almost involuntarily. He hates how young his voice sounds in the relative quiet of the room.

“Of course.” Steve sets down the helmet and puts a heavy hand on Jason’s shoulder. “Thor didn’t really tell us anything about this Dark Knight guy, but you can tell us when you’re ready.”

Jason’s responding hum is shaky and he won’t quite meet Steve’s eyes. But Steve takes the whole endeavor as a win when Jason flashes him a crooked smile and shoos him out of the room to “go save kittens or whatever it is you do.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As Jason watches Steve go, he can’t help but think that the helmet means the same thing no matter where he goes. Jason will be sad to change the identity he’s been using for the longest, but maybe this is a chance to finally wear something other than someone else’s cast off name.

 


End file.
